Disclaimer: Randomcat23 does not own Soul Eater.
She was supposed to be out shopping with Tsubaki, but no, Black*Star just had to go on a mission! Maka huffed as she marched down the street, disappointed.
It wasn't that Maka was really angry (though she might be a bit jealous), but her and Tsubaki were supposed to go to the mall, pick through the sales racks, and joyfully ignore the couples that wafted downtown in the restaurant district. It was their single girls Valentine's Day tradition.
Instead, Maka found herself climbing the empty stairs back to her apartment where two of the most admired people in all of Death City lived; Blair and Soul. It was not a good place to be on Valentine's Day when single and without admirers. It made her skin crawl to see all the attention her roommates acquired from strangers. With a sigh, she slid a key into the doorknob and pushed it open.
"Hey, back already?" Soul called from the couch.
"They had a last minute mission," Maka answered as she kicked off her shoes and hung up her jacket. She glanced sideways at the living room and frowned a bit; so much for single ladies day.
Now she was stuck in her apartment with Soul, who most certainly was a boy and most possibly the target of her hidden affection. Spending the romantic holiday with him was one of the last circumstances she wanted to be in. Her day will be filled with watching him be hounded by other girls while he puts on his cool act.
"Want a chocolate?" A half-eaten box popped up from behind the couch with Soul's hand attached to it.
"Where did you get that?" Maka asked, immediately suspicious.
The box shook. "There was a whole pile by the door. They're Blair's."
"I can't believe you're eating Blair's chocolate, Soul!" On a normal day it was not uncommon for Blair to receive tokens but today there was a truck load of pretty pink boxes wrapped in red and white ribbon just sitting by the apartment door.
"Maka, Blair's a cat. She can't eat chocolate," Soul reminded his meister gently.
Maka's shoulders slumped in defeat and approached the couch. "Right. Huh, they obviously don't know her well," she snorted at the ignorance, rolling up her sleeves.
A few paces later, she leaned over the back of the furniture and plucked a dark chocolate piece out of the heart-shaped box. To her surprise, it was actually decent chocolate and melted instantly in her mouth. "Did you ask her permission?" Maka inquired even as she reached for second.
"No, she was out when I got up." Soul sat up and yawned. "But it doesn't make sense to let it go to waste."
Maka just then noticed the empty boxes on the coffee table and raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, that would be a shame, you pig!" She teased and swatted at his disheveled head. Her green eyes latched onto a particularly tasty looking morsel and she grabbed it with a shameless grin. Soul smirked up at her as Maka chewed the caramel center.
"Why don't you sit? I can't eat these all by myself." He straightened his green t-shirt, dumping little chocolate crumbs everywhere.
"Don't you have a date or something? It is Valentine's Day," Maka ended with a scrutinizing gaze. Soul was no stranger to holiday chocolates either and Maka knew that a good portion of the colorful treats on the table were actually his. She tried to hide her irritation, but the look on her partner's face told her she failed.
"No, I don't," Soul countered. "First date on Valentine's Day? So not cool." His sigh rustled the white spikes from his eyes.
She hesitated then. Sure, it wasn't her original plan, she'd be lying if Maka said she didn't enjoy their time alone. She shrugged in acceptance and took a seat next to a grinning Soul. "You better not have eaten all the good ones."
They settled into a game of trying to guess what kind of chocolate treat was what. There were some delightful surprises like the coconut one Maka thought was just vanilla. Soul laughed at his meister when her green eyes lit up like globes at the taste. Then, Soul nearly choked on an unexpected peanut cluster, sending Maka into a fit of giggles after she made sure he was going to survive. Their bellies screamed for a break when the four box was emptied and both sunk back into the plush couch. Content, Maka let her head rest on Soul's shoulder.
Valentine's Day on a couch with her partner, her best friend, her crush. It was a stupid holiday, in her opinion. All that romantic stuff that people went through only to break up a few months later. But if she was forced to spend a silly holiday with any boy, her first choice most definitely was Soul.
"'You are so beautiful, you radiate like the grinning sun!'"
"What?" Maka flushed at the announcement.
Soul waved a letter in front of her face, thankfully giving the blood time to leave her cheeks. "That's what this guy said about Blair!" Soul's husky chuckles filled the room as he continued, "'I love your hair and your eyes! You fill my dreams at night.'"
Maka grimaced at the sugary letter and breathed a sigh of small relief. "That's sweet," she commented sarcastically and stuck her tongue out at the offending paper. Maybe she could wash down the disgusting confessions with a bitter piece of dark chocolate.
"You'll love this one," Soul teased her and cleared his throat. "Dear Blaire, I love your boobs. I-"
"UGH, what a pig! Is that all guys care about? Boobs?! Even on Valentine's Day-"
Her rant was cut off when Soul pressed a sweet into her mouth. Maka chewed obediently, even as her heart thudded louder. Soul's red eyes brightened at her pout. "I told you." He dropped his finger from her lips and promptly picked up another piece for himself. "He was probably drunk," Soul concluded and tossed the letter aside. His hand shuffled through the clutter on the table, searching for another letter.
"That doesn't make it okay," Maka pressed. "I bet girls love letters are much more...polite and romantic!" In order to make her point, Maka stood and began collecting all the letters that had Soul's name on them, usually the ones surrounded by pink hearts and or lip marks.
Soul snorted, gave up his search and dug through a particularly large white box of treats while watching Maka's antics.
"Here!" Maka exclaimed, holding a letter high. "'Dear Soul, I'm writing to wish you a happy Valentine's Day!'" Pausing, pleased that the letter proved her point, Maka said, "See! How nice that sounds!"
Soul snatched the letter from her, skimmed it and then rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, this is just great. Do you like the part where she demands to be my partner best, or the line where she states that you're useless?" He crumpled it up angrily before Maka could read the name.
"Who said what about me?"
Once again, he shut her up with a chocolate treat and gingerly pulled her to sit down. "See, Maka, yeah, guys can be stupidly straight forward, but you girls can be shallow too."
Maka crossed her arms over her chest and tried to ignore the jealously that bubbled up again. After swallowing the chocolate and envy she countered smoothly, "At least girls don't go on and on about your...physical assets!"
"'Soul you have a such a great ass, I love walking behind you in the hallway,'" he read calmly with a raised eyebrow. Soul then glanced at Maka and threw the rejected love letter behind him. "Told you."
"That's...that's...so...disgusting!" Maka spat and bit her lip. Not only was she losing an argument here, but now she was thinking about Soul's physical assets!
"Maka," Soul called to her, waving his hand back and forth.
"What? What? Are you going to go after that...pervert girl?"
"What? Stop it. None of these girls mean anything to me," he denied, annoyed. "I asked if you wanted to help me finish this box off." He gestured to the biggest box (one to Blair) still open on the table.
"Oh...why not?" To get back at him, Maka shoved two pieces of chocolate passed his lips before he could resist. She picked a raspberry one for herself and decided to change the subject from love letters to something less volatile. "Did we really eat this much chocolate?" She hesitated to count the number of boxes they had polished off.
Soul burped, "Yep."
The evidence was right in front of them. Red, white, and sparkly ribbons tangled together, discarded. Empty chocolate boxes covered the table and made a small pile on the floor. Maka shook her head; all the candy was for Blair and Soul, supposed tokens of love, and the two of them did not care. Blair couldn't even eat most of her gifts.
"What a stupid holiday," Maka moaned. "It's a waste of time."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!" Maka insisted, turning to Soul. "These people don't even know you, and, and they probably gave presents to tons of other people too. It seems so fake."
Soul shrugged noncommittally, but refrained from countering.
Shaking her head, Maka stood and began gathering the empty boxes. After a few stomps to the kitchen, she returned with a garbage bag and began throwing in trash.
She paused when a small white box caught her eye. It sat underneath wrappers and chocolate scraps, apparently untouched. Rolling her eyes, Maka dug it out from the garbage pile. "Looks like there's one more!"
"Oh?" Soul folded his arms behind his head.
"Yeah, probably another one of Blair's. Too bad nobody knows her well enough to not send chocolate..." Maka flipped the box over expecting the cat's name, but was shocked to find hers. "Me?" Who sent her a Valentine's Day treat? She inspected the box closely, looking for clues.
"Well, open it!" Soul demanded.
She didn't want to be excited, already feeling hypocritical, but a small smile broke her frown as her thin fingers ran along the seam of the wrapping paper. Finding the tape, Maka carefully detached the sticky piece from the paper and slowly revealed not a box of chocolate, but a brand new book.
"Who...?" Confused, Maka looked up at Soul for help, but was suddenly faced with his intense red stare filled with anticipation. "Soul? Did you...really?"
"Check it out," he insisted. "I promise it's not a shitty letter."
It was not; it was much, much better. Maka's head spun as she read the front and back covers, delighted that it was a fantastical adventure novel. New book smell filled her nose as she flipped the crisp pages. A realization swept through her too, that this book was the first Valentine's Day gift she ever received from a boy. "Thank you, Soul," honesty shook her voice.
He waved off, back to being cool. "No problem, Maka. I thought it was better than chocolates."
Maka glanced at the present and back at her partner, then took in the mess around them. Unlike the chocolates, this book was a thoughtful present, meant only for her.
"I guess not every guy is gross," she whispered sweetly, but not so softly that he couldn't hear. A warmth filled her as she kneeled on the floor amongst the trash and Soul smiled back at her.
"Glad you think so highly of me," Soul approved, gesturing to himself.
"Oh!" Maka exclaimed, realizing that she had nothing to give Soul. She bit her lip, cursing herself for not thinking to buy her partner, her best friend, something. It would be lame to run out and purchase something now, when he had put time into buying her a gift. But what could she give him that wasn't pointless or fake?
With a slight blush and a grin, Maka rose, book in hand and returned to the couch. "Thanks, Soul, really. It means a lot."
He looked up at her through white spikes and merely shrugged.
Maka leaned over and planted a chaste kiss on his tan cheek. "I'm glad I got to spend this stupid holiday with you."
"Ha, yeah, me too, Maka. Me too."
For the record, I am in no way against giving chocolates to someone you care about, or have any real issues with Valentine's Day. Just showing someone you care is important I think!
Feedback is greatly appreciated!-randomcat23